


Burning Up

by err4tic



Category: SHINee
Genre: Hanahaki Disease, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:14:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25124509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/err4tic/pseuds/err4tic
Summary: Nine days.Kibum had nowhere to hide.
Relationships: Choi Minho/Kim Kibum | Key, Kim Jonghyun/Lee Jinki | Onew
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. Day 1

Minho was quiet all throughout their dinner with Jonghyun after the movie. It was an unbelievably crappy action movie, so Kibum was fully expecting him to be tearing the movie apart as soon as they stepped out of the cinema. He heard not a peep from the taller man.

He barely ate his bag of shrimps, too. That was so not like him.

"Seriously, man, what is wrong with you?" Kibum asked worriedly as he gave Minho a sideways glance while they walked across the parking lot toward the other's Jeep. Jonghyun had to bail immediately after dinner because his boyfriend unexpectedly went home from overseas for an unannounced research break and ended up borrowing Kib's car.

He wasn't sure, but Minho appeared to be weaving on his feet. 

"Huh?" Minho looked at Kibum, eyes glittering unnaturally. "I'm fine..." and stumbled, nearly falling flat on his face if Kibum hadn't shot out a hand to steady him.  
"Shit. Minho, you're burning up!" He stepped closer and laid the back of his palm against the taller man's forehead.

Minho grinned drunkenly. "Are you telling me I'm hot?" He waved his hand away. "Seriously, Kibum, I'm fine..."

"No, You're not. Where are your keys?" Kibum was trying his damnedest not to panic. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat. Possibly something else, too, but he hurriedly dismissed it to focus on the matter at hand.

He had to get Minho to a hospital, fast. 

***

It was 11 PM. Despite the lateness of the evening, the emergency room was still surprisingly busy due to a multi-vehicular accident. Seeing the chaos, Kibum ushered Minho to a seat near the doors and approached one of the nurses on duty who appeared to be less busy than the others. 

"Hi, my friend is running a really high fever and is barely coherent. Can somebody please take a look at him?" 

The nurse closed the file folder over the sheet she was writing on and passed it to one of the nurses dashing by. "Could you step over there, sir, and wait for a bit? Our beds are currently full, but we'll be transferring one of the patients any moment now. Let me call one of the doctors for you." 

Kibum shot a worried look at Minho, who looked surprisingly small under both their coats. "Can you please hurry? He's really hot, maybe his temperature has reached 39 by now? And he's been shivering the entire drive to the hospital."

"I'll do my best, sir."

Kibum made his way back to Minho, whose head was lolling limply down in a worrying manner. He sat down beside him and gently supported the other man's head until it rested on his shoulder. He sat there observing Minho's restless face until he heard the nurse call Minho's name. 

An ER resident whose nameplate said "Kim Junmyeon" came over with an orderly with a wheelchair. Minho was wheeled into one of the enclosures and transferred onto a cot. He stirred for a bit, groaning slightly, then again fell into a fitful sleep. 

At the doctor's surprisingly pleasant demeanor and efficient manner as he assessed Minho, Kibum found himself almost immediately calming down and relaying Minho's details and the events of the evening to the doctor. Minho told him that he had been experiencing fevers on and off for a couple of weeks now. He had been taking his vitamins, trying to eat relatively healthily, and resting than exercising after work. He waved off Kibum's offers to accompany him to the hospital, saying that nothing but a horse tranquilizer could put him down. Yesterday, he told Kibum that he was feeling completely fine so that the monthly movie night with him and Jonghyun could commence.

"Maybe I shouldn't have gone along with it if I knew he was still feeling this sick. I should have noticed and insisted to cut the evening short..."

The doctor smiled reassuringly at him. "Kim-ssi, if he had been feeling off for weeks now and not seeing a doctor, then maybe it was a good thing that he collapsed in the company of a friend instead of on his own." 

Kibum's tensed shoulders slightly relaxed at those words. The doctor ordered for Minho's labs and an IV line to rehydrate him and administer medicine to lower his 39-degree fever.

It wasn't until Minho was safely sleeping in his hospital room that Kibum finally gave in to the luxury of coughing out his first white petal. 

*** 


	2. Day 2.

"No, the doctors haven't said anything yet, only that Minho has to stay here for further tests."

Silence.

"Jjong, I know. But if this escalates, they still won't be able to fly in for at least a couple of days more. Apparently, there's a hurricane in their state, so it's impossible to book flights at this point."

One hand reached out to feel the other's fevered brow.

"Who, then? You? Jinki? No. You know I can work pretty much anywhere. I don't mind. Just get me the stuff I told you, please?"

"Of course not. That's not going to happen. Bye."

"Jonghyun?" Minho asked in a groggy voice as the man struggled to get up.

"Stay down, Ming, I'll do it." Kibum gently pushed on Minho's shoulders and pressed on a button to raise the upper portion of the bed to an incline. 

"What did hyung say?"

Kibum sat on the sofa bed allocated for the patient's guardians and handed Minho a water bottle. "I asked him to bring me some clothes and my laptop so I can work here. How do you feel? You hungry?" He watched as Minho tried to ineffectually twist off the cap, then reached over to take it from his hands with a sigh.

Minho shook his head and brought his free arm to cover his eyes. "Horse tranquilizer." 

Kibum snickered despite his worry. "Since I don't know how that feels, I guess I'll just have to take your word for it."

"No context is good." A moment of silence stretched between them, and Kibum thought that Minho had again drifted off to sleep. He started when the other man suddenly spoke. "You don't have to stay, you know. You may catch whatever bug this is that I have."

Kibum knew Minho well enough to hear what he didn't say.  
 _Thank you._ _Stay._

Of course, that was just the sickness talking. Or not talking. "Shut up and go to sleep before I actually do walk out on you."

Minho faintly laughed.

"I'll just go downstairs to get some coffee. Sleep."

***  
Kibum liked doing household chores. Or, to put it more correctly, he needed stuff in order at all times to be able to function. Jonghyun said he would be dropping off his stuff before heading to work, and Minho's internist hadn't made his rounds yet, so he started fixing the few belongings they had in the room. He plugged in Minho's phone and hung up their outerwear in the small closet. Then, he gave Minho a sponge bath and helped him change into a fresh hospital gown, with as much indifference as he coule manage. Then he left him to change into his (newly bought from the convenience store) underwear as he washed Minho's underwear and shirt .   
  
Yep. Him. Kim Kibum. Handwashed the underpants of someone who's not him, a family member, or a lover. All out of necessity, mind you.  
Wasn't he a regular Florence Nightingale. Applause.

And, of course, unlucky Minho just had to be wearing his old lucky red boxers when he had to be taken to the hospital.   
  
Funny story. His lungs, which had been feeling rather heavy since he woke up, decided to act up just as he was drying the underwear using the hair dryer. Nothing came out, thankfully, but you know. Aerosol droplets. Rewash.

***

The internist came and discussed Minho's lab results, saying that they found nothing unusual about them. His fever had been yoyoing, too, but still managed to stay above the normal levels. Minho mentioned developing rashes on certain parts of his body, so they mentioned running an allergy test and other labs to rule out hemorrhagic fever or some other disease. Kibum's head really wasn't grasping any of it, however hard he tried to pay attention. After all, he had to report these things to Minho's family.

Jonghyun arrived in the afternoon (as opposed to that morning as originally planned) with a basket of fruit in one hand and Kibum's overnight case in another. 

"This isn't for you, Choi; this is for your caretaker," the man jovially announced as he placed the basket on the table and gave Kibum a quick hug. "Kib, go shower. You reek."

"Excuse you? I do not!" Remembering where they were, Kibum tried to throttle his indignant voice, the second sentence ended up being delivered in a harsh whisper. 

Minho laughed and then suddenly groaned, clutching his head. "God. Please don't make me laugh. I want so badly to fan that flame, but my brain's fried right now." He had been sleeping for most of the day, barely eating any of the tasteless rubbish they called hospital food before he got the urge to yak it out. 

Jonghyun annoyingly opened a small bag of Lay's Sour Cream and Onion, which he waved under Minho's nose before grabbing a couple of pieces and passing it to Kibum.

Minho pouted, doe eyes blinking blearily. "Evil. I can't."

Kibum punched Jonghyun on the shoulder and took away the bag. "Hyung, If you're going to be this annoying, go away."

Jonghyun grinned up at him and then looked at Minho, face sobering. "I can't believe you're this sick, Minho. I mean, in all the years I've known you, I've never seen you out of commission like this. What is it?"

Minho shrugged. "I don't even know. I could have sworn they were just fevers or something." 

Jonghyun glanced at Kibum. "Did they run further tests? When will they release the resuts?"

Kibum nodded his head. "They took some blood samples earlier, and the results will be released late tonight."

"Did they tell you when he will be discharged?"

Kibum shook his head.

Jonghyun glanced at his watch. "I can stay for the next couple of hours. Bummie, go if you have errands to run. You probably haven't eaten all day."

Minho's eyes widened in surprise and guilt. "Shit. I think I've been asleep all day, I didn't think of that. Kibum, have you eaten?"

Kibum waved a hand lightly. "I grabbed a sandwich at the convenience store earlier. And a banana from your food tray. I'm fine."

Jonghyun still waved him away. "Even so, go."

Kibum looked up from his scrutiny of the contents of his overnight bag and glanced at Minho. "I do need to pick up some of your stuff. You can't live on convenience store underwear forever." He said the last in a matter-of-factly voice and successfully managed to keep his color at a minimum. 

Minho smiled sheepishly. "Um. Yeah. Can you? Feel free to ransack my apartment for whatever you think we would need here." 

Kibum cleared his throat before saying yes. Jonghyun shot him a sharp look. 

"Are you sure you can do this?" Jonghyun asked him as they stepped out of the room for a bit before Kibum left. 

Kibum flashed the other man a reassuring smile. "Of course. I'm used to this. Remember Grandma?"

"That's not what I'm asking, and you know it."

Kibum's smile faltered a bit around the edges. "I know you would have done the same if Jinki hadn't flown back on research break. Who else is there? His weekend soccer buddies? Someone from his office? One of his one-night stands? Or, God forbid, that ex-girlfriend of his?" 

Jonghyun shot him a commiserating look and drew the taller man to his side for a hug. "I'm sorry. If this keeps up, I'll ask Jinki for one night away." He reached up and ruffled Kibum's hair. "Still, I am worried about you."

Kibum pulled away. "Don't be ridiculous. I can do it." He said it more to himself than anything. "I'll be fine."

***


	3. Day 3

"I want to shower."

Kibum looked up from knocking on his own head with his knuckles --dammit, what's another word for 'disappointment'?-- and looked over at Minho, who was looking markedly less miserable (but a bit more red) than he did yesterday. Kibum saved his document and uncoiled from his cross-legged position on the sofa bed and approached Minho to check his temperature.   
  
"Ok. Try getting up without my help first, and then I'll ask if your doctor would allow you to shower tomorrow." He went back to his perch and started typing again, cursing inwardly at losing his train of thought. He had just given him a sponge bath an hour ago. Goodness, it was only their third day together in the hospital, and he's starting to lose his patience with Minho - huh. maybe that's why they call patients that: as a constant reminder for people who deal with them to be patient.  
  
Man, even Jinki would hate that joke, and he's the master of bad puns.   
  
There was that episode this morning. Some of his medicines needed to be taken on a full stomach, but Minho wouldn't eat anything, no matter what tactic Kibum employed to get him to eat. However, it only took a few smiles and some cajoling from the pretty nurse for him to finally take a few spoonfuls of porridge. Kibum took a glance at Minho's disgruntled pouts and aegyo voice complaining about the blandness of his food while being spoonfed by Nurse Im and could have sworn he had somehow contracted some sort of stomach flu from the other man. But hey, at least it wasn't the patient who had wanted to throw up at the time.  
  
Then, there was that episode when Kibum stepped out for a bit to take a call from his editor. As weak as Minho was when he first came in, logistics of a particular nature had to be discussed. A catheter was proposed as an option, but with the way Minho (and himself in sympathetic horror) was looking decidedly green during the discussion, Kibum made the call and opted for the less invasive approach, promising the doctor to religiously record Minho's fluid intake-output. But no, Minho had to act too macho for a urinal and nearly passed out on the way back to the bed, all but pulling out his IV line in the process. Heart in his throat, Kibum had to run like he hadn't since high school phys ed class to assist the stubborn man and was horribly torn between smacking the other guy on the head for being so obstinate or smacking him for being so flippant and saying, "My hero!" in a falsetto voice. And maybe give him another smack for not taking note of the fluid output.

The last straw that nearly had him pulling all his hair out by the roots was when earlier, Tiffany, his ex, sent him a cake. The woman was extremely pretty, Kibum had to admit, but she was an attention-seeker who couldn't deal with Minho's work even though he did try his best to be there for her. She ended the relationship by cheating on Minho and sending him a cake with a break-up post-it. On his birthday, no less. Granted, Minho had not been a perfect boyfriend, but couldn't she have at least broken it off with him first before sleeping with another guy?

It's been about a year since then, but the (insert choice invective) had the unmitigated gall to make contact with him on social media a few months after the breakup. Kibum was more than ready to throw hands, but was only able to calm down because he's a classy guy, dammit (even if it kills him). But what did Minho do? He flirted under the Instagram post of the damn woman posing with his "Get Well Soon" cake. It was as if he had never had to pick up Minho a bunch of times at a bar with his face planted on a bar counter, or watch the man hunched over, sober, morose and despairing, berating himself for being such a crappy boyfriend.

Really, Minho could be so infuriating sometimes. 

Kibum was expecting Minho to offer a rebuttal, but he didn't say anything. He glanced at the bed's occupant out of the corner of his eye. 

Minho had an arm thrown over his eyes, throat working convulsively. "This fucking sucks," he whispers.

Oh, shit. Kibum was a horrible, horrible friend. 

It sucked to see such a strong man like Minho tied to his bed like this. Truth be told, he himself was feeling antsy at the lack of results from the lab tests; from what he understood, the more tests they run, the more fucked up your body probably was. They even towed Minho out earlier to get his head scanned to rule out some inflammation or infection in the brain or something. Shit, the doctors were even considering a brain problem? Fuck!   
  
He was just there being such a crappy best friend, and he felt really bad and scared about all this. He couldn't imagine how much worse it must be for Minho.  
  
Kibum turned away from the sight and stood up, chest feeling heavy. "I'll follow up on your dinner and see if Nurse Im's around to feed you again." He hurriedly stepped out of the room and rushed to the nearest public restroom in the hallway, beset with an attack of coughing that left him dry heaving over the lavatory. Again, nothing came out.   
  
Maybe he was just being a selfish person. Maybe he wasn't in love with Minho after all.   
  
***


	4. Day 4

"Kim Kibum-ssi? What is your relationship with the patient?"

Kibum could not look at Minho. "We're friends," he told Dr. Do Kyungsoo, Minho's attending physician. 

"I see." Dr. Do turned toward Minho, who was thankfully less out of it today. "May I ask you to step out of the room for a bit? I need to ask Mr. Choi a few questions of a confidential nature." 

Minho looked at Kibum, who was looking at everything but Minho. 

"Can he not stay? Whatever questions you want to ask, Kibum probably knows the answer. Kibum knows everything about me, anyway."

Kibum was afraid that the doctor would comment, but he only nodded and consulted a small notebook. 

"Mr. Choi, I would like you to answer the questions as honestly as possible. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

In hindsight, Kibum should have expected these questions, but the reality of being in here hearing Minho answer them was even more excruciating than he had imagined.

"So, Choi Minho-ssi, when did you start having sexual intercourse?" 

_Yep. Time to bust out that phone game on mute._  
  
"Have you ever been tested for sexually transmitted diseases?"  
"I generally use protection so I didn't think I needed it." 

"When was the last time you had sex with someone?"  
Kibum could feel himself blushing. _Holy shit, I don't get paid well enough for this._  
"Sometime last month, I think?" Kibum felt himself grow cold. _I didn't know that._

"When was the last time you had unprotected sex?"  
"Last year."  
_Tiffany. Of course,_ Kibum thought bitterly. He didn't fail to notice the curious glance that the doctor threw his way.

"Have you ever engaged in sexual intercourse with a male?"   
With that, Kibum's fingers stopped mid-attack, and he surreptitiously looked from under his lashes at Minho, who he could have sworn was looking a bit more red than usual. After some hesitation, he answered firmly, "I have never had penetrative sex with a male, Doctor."

The term Minho used was interesting. So... Did that mean he had non-penetrative sex with a male before?   
If so, then nope. Kibum was not aware of this. 

***

"Kibum... are you asleep?" Minho's voice resounded in the darkness.  
Kibum, who had been trying to fall asleep on his bed, hummed in reply.   
"Does it ever go away?"  
"Hm?"  
"AIDS," the other said in a small voice. "Does it ever go away?"

In horror, Kibum turned over to face the other man. "What?"   
_Are you fucking kidding me?!?_ For an extremely smart data scientist, Minho could be incredibly dense about some things. But this? This was on a whole other level of--  
  
"Don't cry, Kibum, please. I hate it when you cry."

Kibum had no idea that a tortured whimper had escaped from his mouth. He did hear Minho's sharply indrawn breath.  
  
Silence.   
  
"If the results come out and show that Tiffany did manage to give you that disease, I will kill that bitch."  
  
"Kibum!" Minho's voice sounded distinctly watery, shocked, and faintly amused.

"I swear to God, Choi Minho. Just watch me."   
  
***


	5. Day 5.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday, baby cheese. 200718

Kibum came back from the hospital lobby cafe to find Minho, with his bed rolled up to an incline, conversing with possibly the most beautiful person Kibum had ever seen.

“Uh, hi,” Kibum said with a bright smile, pretending as if he did not almost drop the caddy holding his iced Americano and hot green tea. 

The waif-like man--boy, more like, Kibum mused--stood up and smiled tentatively. Minho turned toward Kibum and gestured for him to come closer. “Kibum, this is Taemin. Taemin, Kibum.”

Kibum didn’t dwell on the fact that Minho didn’t elaborate on the nature of their relationship to Taemin… or so he tried. 

Equally notable was the lack of description of his relationship with Minho, but Kibum definitely did **_not_ ** notice that. 

“Kibum-sshi. I’ve heard so much about you from Minho-hyung. I’m glad to finally meet you.” Taemin bowed to Kibum and flashed him a smile that was made no less charming by its inordinate show of gums. 

The wheels in Kibum’s head were busily churning. Minho had never mentioned a Taemin to him before. The fact that Minho talked to this ( _pretty, dammit,_ his inner voice unhelpfully supplied) boy about him and called Minho hyung was highly suspicious, to say the least.

 _Now’s not the time, Kibum,_ he scolded himself. 

“Hello, Taemin. I’m glad one of Minho’s other friends could visit him. God knows I’m getting tired of entertaining him.” He playfully rolled his eyes at Minho, whose smile suddenly flattened ever so slightly. Kibum tucked away his reaction for later.

_Come on, Minho, work with me._

He turned toward Taemin and said with the most congenial smile he could muster, “So… cake?”

***

So. As it turned out, Taemin was that kid who graduated summa cum laude from the country’s premier Physics program at the age of 14. Gained his masters and PhD at 18. Awarded patents for several inventions in the field of meteorology and published a number of pioneering research articles in traffic studies and logistics. All of these laurels gained before the ripe old age of 25.

Oh. And he happened to be “Crazy Rich Asians” type of loaded. 

And, as it turned out, he’s Minho’s boss. 

Even under threat of mortal injury, Kibum couldn’t have kept his jaw from dropping to the floor. “Wait. You’re Magic Hands?”

The kid blushed adorably--as if he could do so otherwise...with that face?-- and said in a plaintive tone toward Minho, “Hyung! How could you tell Kibum-ssi that?”

"What are you talking about?" Kibum indignantly said. "That was masterfully done, Taemin-ssi! More people should know about it."

"It was even more awesome up close. Man, you should have seen it." Minho chuckled fondly at the recollection and at the little pout on Taemin-ssi's face.

Minho had mentioned Magic Hands whenever they talked about work. He belonged to Minho's inner circle. The promotion must have been fairly new, because Minho never mentioned that Magic Hands was his superior.

For some reason, he never talked to Kibum about who Magic Hands really was. 

The conversation steered to shop talk, but every once in a while, Minho--and surprisingly, Taemin--turned to him and asked his opinion about something or the other. It was… cute. 

Cute. Intelligent. Talented. Nice.

Kibum watched them for a moment. 

The kid seemed to radiate warmth as his eyes all but disappeared when he smiled. Even more so than usual, the shift nurses seemed to make all sorts of excuses to drop by Minho's room, from checking Minho's IV line to checking his vitals, if only to bask for even a second in that warmth. He himself felt a tug somewhere in the general vicinity of his heart when that smile was directed at him multiple times. 

Imagine being subjected to that sort of sunshine on the regular. 

_Ah_. 

Kibum shoved a particularly large chunk of Tiffany's "Get Well Soon!" cake into his mouth. 

***


End file.
